His Royal Highness the Purple One delivers a strong 88-minute concert during San Diego leg of West Coast tour

And in those four words, one could sum up how many in the 8 p.m. audience felt about Prince on Friday. Even though the night’s setlist lacked many of his popular titles, it was easy to forgive Prince for using the intimate setting to try something new.

Some of the songs performed Friday were old songs that had been reworked to the point they were almost unrecognizable. And still, other songs were so unknown you sometimes wondered, “What song was that?” And then, there were songs so new you probably were hearing them for the first time.

For all that, and for being 38 minutes late, you didn't want to forgive him, but with all that great music, you had no choice but to do so. And the $250-per-ticket price tag? You didn’t really want to forgive him for that either, but you go ahead anyway.

It’s Prince after all.

“Too many hits, not enough time,” he said before wrapping up the 8 p.m. concert to clear the room for the 11:30 p.m. crowd, lined up around the block outside the hotel.

Earlier, he promised he’d make it up, and he definitely did — and because of that, you wished that there wasn’t a second show that evening so you could get one more encore or two, courtesy of Prince, who on this warm Friday night, ruled San Diego like a king.